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SendGrid

Acquired by Twilio

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Don't believe all the 4H Hype - Manager SendGrid Employee Review

1.0
Jun 26, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Free lunches, cell phone and fitness perks

Cons

Senior managers don't know how to measure or manage performance, especially with remote employees. Performance ratings are made by soliciting feedback from peers and in the case of managers, their direct reports. Since the people giving the feedback have only a small context of the responsibilities of the person they are given feedback on, this creates negative perceptions and unjust performance ratings. The culture in the office seem very cliquish and not very welcoming to employees that have a quiet demeanor.

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SendGrid Response
8y
We appreciate the Honest H feedback and we’re sorry to hear that you had a challenging experience with performance ratings and feeling more included. Fostering the growth and career development of our talented Gridders is a priority for us and we work hard to deliver regular, ongoing feedback, supported by a transparent performance review process. Our engagement survey questions, feedback from directs/peers/direct management including skip levels, achievement of individual and team goals & the overall performance and engagement of the team, are all ways we gather feedback on performance. We use skip level feedback as one small part of the assessment of management effectiveness and our goal is to be fair and balanced with all. Through our focus on fostering our 4H culture and via our Prism diversity and inclusion group initiative, we try everyday to create an environment where our Gridders can be their authentic selves at work and feel a genuine sense of belonging among our team. Thanks for sharing ways that you feel we’re falling short and know that we care and will continue to work hard to ensure this isn’t something other experience at the Grid.

Explore other reviews about SendGrid

5.0
Jul 9, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- culture and people are amazing, they challenge you and push you to be the best version of yourself. - decision making process is astounding for a company of our size. Product, finance and engineering decisions are made in a very data-driven way. - Willing to discuss the hard topics and make the most informed decision. - Benefits are amazing, free lunch everyday is fantastic, i hope we don't lose this. - If you're motivated and willing to work hard, you can be recognized and tasked with more responsibility. I've seen many people grow their careers here and be promoted every year based on their performance and determination.

Cons

- typical pains related to integrating with Twilio after the acquisition in Feb of 2019. Most painful of which is the figuring out how we make decisions now as one larger company. (Twilio has less process / standard way to make decisions, SendGrid has a formalized process). - The general energy of the company is lower now after the Twilio acquisition – still positive but now that we're not a standalone, public company, there appears to be less control over our business (email, email marketing) destiny. - Culture of Twilio, while close to SendGrid's, is definitely different and will take some time to feel part of one

2
5.0
Jan 22, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Before I even officially started, it was recommended to read: "Radical Candor", "The Alchemy of Growth", and "Competing Against Luck". The company, and senior leadership has a maniacal focus on culture. Every 'Gridder' is evaluated on their ability to get work done, give honest feedback (kindly), learn and grow in their role, and contribute to others' success. We never do anything alone. Cliche analogies aside, it really does feel like you're climbing a summit. Your skill on it's own is ok, but success relies just as much on the person on belay. The company definitely cares more about your health and wellbeing more than any other place I have worked at. The benefits reflect those values and make it easy to get healthy lunches, find support in meeting your personal goals, and go out and do something fun. Feedback and rapid iteration are key values, resulting in processes that have more polish than fortune 100 companies. The focus on taking feedback at every step and making sure very iteration is better result in artifacts that feel like it took 10x as many people as we have. The work is fun, the teams are extremely supportive and tight-knit, and you'll learn more in 6 months than you thought possible in a year.

Cons

Not on my team, but I have heard that at times, people are too determined to be 'nice' and fail to deliver needed feedback when performance isn't great. I admire the companies commitment to delivering valuable, honest, and timely feedback in a way that's both constructive and unquestionable.

3
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